The present invention relates generally to digital television receivers and in particular to a method for displaying status and controlling attached peripheral devices in television receivers that operate according to the digital television standard.
Current analog television systems transmit one program per channel. Selection from among the channels being broadcast at any given time is made by adjusting the tuner to tune to the frequency of the desired channel. In addition, peripheral devices, such as video cassette records (VCRs), which are connected to a television receiver are typically controlled exclusively through the VCR, even though a control or menu screen may be displayed on the display device of the television receiver.
Some digital television systems exist which transmit multiple programs via a satellite link. These systems include an electronic program guide which maps each program number into a particular transponder signal, a particular channel being transmitted by the transponder and a particular program in the channel. In these systems, the electronic program guide is required to tune to a program being carried by one of these digital satellite systems. Thus an electronic program guide must be generated at the head-end and decoded by the receiver in order to tune to a specific program.
The Program and System Information Protocol for Terrestrial Broadcast and Cable specification as described in publication DOC A/65 published by Advanced Television Systems Committee, which is incorporated herein by reference for its teachings on digital the program and system information protocol (PSIP), describes a method by which television program information may be transmitted with a multiprogram data stream that conveys multiple programs in a single terrestrial broadcast channel or cable channel. Thus, each of several broadcasters who transmit signals in a given area may send a signal that contains a single high-definition program or multiple programs which may be either high-definition or standard definition programs. When each broadcaster sends multiple programs over its channel, the standard describe a method by which these programs are identified. The PSIP standard builds upon the ATSC Digital Television Standard DOC A/53 which, in turn, builds upon the MPEG-2 standard defined by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) which is described in a publication entitled "Generic Coding of Moving Pictures and Associated Audio, Recommendation H.626", ISO/IEC 13818-2, IS, 11/94 available from the International Standards Organization and which is hereby incorporated by reference for its teaching on the MPEG-2 digital video coding standard.
The PSIP standard only defines a method for identifying and associating the various programs that are transmitted via an ATSC multi-program stream. It does not describe any method for displaying the data in a way that may be easily understood by a viewer.